STANDfor Public Landsby More Than Just Parks
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Stand · Find your defenders

Who’s defending the Great Smoky Mountains?

2 groups likely to care, a guess from mission and footprint

National park in Tennessee / North Carolina, 522,427 acres, managed by the National Park Service, designated in 1934.

Likely to care

Groups likely to care about Great Smoky Mountains

These 2 groups are a guess from each group's stated mission and where it works, not a record of work on this fight. Give directly; nothing routes through us.

3 more work nearby but are not tied to Great Smoky Mountains on the record

On the ground in Tennessee and North Carolina

North Carolina Outward BoundTennessee is one of the 4 states they work inStewardshipAppalachian VoicesBased in Boone, close to the groundGrassroots

More ways in

Southern Environmental Law CenterWorking this regionLegal

The situation

What’s happening to Great Smoky Mountains

Twelve million visitors a year walk beneath the oldest mountains on the continent. The Smokies harbor more tree species than all of northern Europe combined, biological diversity unmatched east of the Mississippi. Budget cuts are hollowing out the staff that keeps this park from being loved to death.

  1. 1934Established as national park
NPS budget cuts threaten park operations

Source: The Coalition to Protect America's National Parks

No public comment window is open on Great Smoky Mountains right now. A call script is ready on the Public Lands Action Network, and the groups above are how the fight gets funded and argued in the meantime.

Your move

How to stand for the Great Smoky Mountains

GiveGive to Great Smoky Mountains Association

Straight to their own donation page. Your dollar never passes through us.

Their donation page ↗SpeakCall your representatives

A ready call script on Great Smoky Mountains, plus any comment window as it opens.

Public Lands Action NetworkFollowWatch the map

Every threatened place in the country, tracked, with who stands for each.

Threatened Lands Map

Build my lineup around Great Smoky Mountains: the leading group here opens it, and the other seats fill from this record.

Great Smoky Mountains has defenders. It needs more.

2 more likely to care, Great Smoky Mountains Association with 133 staff + 6 volunteers. Find your way in.

Give to the association ↗Every place, state and species
Sources and methodThe situation, timeline, and threats: the MTJP threatened-lands record for Great Smoky Mountains, with per-item sources. Group crews and program ratios: IRS Form 990 via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, latest filed year, EINs on each group’s profile. Which groups are on the record for this place: MTJP editors tie a group to a fight only with a source link they have read, one link at a time. A group without one is shown as likely to care, a guess from the federal court record and the group’s own mission and footprint. Org-reported figures are always labeled. Data verified as of 2026-10-03. Nothing on this page is pay-to-play.